"We are not supposed to be an assembly of gentlemen who have no interests of any kind and no association of any kind. That is ridiculous. That may apply in Heaven, but not, happily, here."
---Winston Churchill, characterizing the House of Commons in 1947
Winston Churchill became world famous as Britain's Prime Minister during World War II, but as the above quote suggests, his attitude towards conflicts of interest was merely that of a typical Conservative member of the House of Commons. Two Harvard political scientists have found that serving in Parliament roughly doubled the wealth of Conservative MPs but had no discernible effect on the wealth of Labor MPs. Conservative MPs profited by outside work as directors, consultants, and lobbyists, both while in office and afterwards. These results support conventional wisdom but also suggest that Conservatives' financial gains were larger than typically assumed. Details below.
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